This iconic episode takes place at a retirement home called Sunnyvale Rest Home.\u00a0 We\u2019re shown a cross section of the inhabitants doddering around or dozing in chairs along with a few nurses and a doctor supervising the elderly.\u00a0 Next, we see one old man, Charles Whitley, trying to sneak out the front door with a suitcase in hand without the nurse seeing him.\u00a0 When he manages it, a car pulls up in front of Sunnyvale and Charles gets in.\u00a0 But we\u2019re witness to Charles\u2019 son telling his old Dad that he didn\u2019t say he would be taking Dad home with him but that he would talk with him about it.\u00a0 Next, we see the car drive away with Charles left behind.\u00a0 Walking dejectedly back toward Sunnyvale Charles is mesmerized by the sight of a bunch of young boys playing kick the can.\u00a0 In fact, almost unconsciously he picks up the can and walks away with it as the kids plead with him to return it.<\/p>\n
Back in his room Charles talks to his old friend Ben Conroy about what happened.\u00a0 Ben criticizes Charles\u2019 son for abandoning him but Charles claims that he can\u2019t expect his son to have the resources to take him into his small home.\u00a0 After all, his growing family needs all the resources available.\u00a0 But Charles has begun to think about what life should be like for himself.\u00a0 And the thought that has entered his mind is that acting young has a magic that can make him young.\u00a0 He tells Ben that he thinks that if he can relive his childhood pursuit of a game like Kick the Can maybe he can be young again too.\u00a0 Ben tells him not to go soft in the head and that he should maintain some dignity in his declining years.\u00a0 He warns Charles that trying to act young is only going to get him hurt doing things his body isn\u2019t capable of anymore.<\/p>\n
But Charles ignores his friend and starts running around the grounds acting like a kid.\u00a0 When he decides to start running through the lawn sprinkler, the Doctor and the Nurses restrain him and take him inside to put on dry clothes and rest.\u00a0 The Doctor informs Ben that the next morning he intends to have Charles confined to a restricted area where he can\u2019t hurt himself.\u00a0 Ben tells this to Charles and in desperation to prevent this from happening he hatches a plan.\u00a0 He recruits the other old men and women.\u00a0 After dark while they are supposed to be asleep, they will set off firecrackers as a distraction and escape onto the front lawn to play kick the can.\u00a0 At the last-minute Charles begs Ben, his oldest friend to join them.<\/p>\n
But Ben rejects the idea and when the firecrackers go off, he goes to tell the Doctor that Charles has staged an escape with the other patients.\u00a0 The two of them rush outside and as some boys and girls run past them we can hear Charles counting off the beginning of the game, \u201cfive, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty.\u201d\u00a0 Then we hear a young boy\u2019s voice continue, \u201cforty-five, fifty, fifty-five, sixty.\u201d\u00a0 And by the time his count is over we see a little boy run past Ben and the Doctor to catch up to the other kids we\u2019ve seen run by.\u00a0 The Doctor chases after the other kids but the boy who is \u201cit\u201d stops and looks at Ben.\u00a0 And Ben recognizes his boyhood friend Charlie and asks him if he recognizes his old friend Bennie.\u00a0 Then Ben begs Charlie to take him with him but Charlie is no longer a part of the world that Ben has clung to and he runs into the night free of the weight of old age and mortality.\u00a0 And Ben sits on the steps holding the can and regretfully contemplating his fate.<\/p>\n
I have to admit, hearing the kids recite the sing-song count at the beginning of the game brings me back to being ten years old with a vividness that verges on magic.\u00a0 Playing tag, freeze tag and hide and go seek on a warm summer evening were some of the fondest memories of childhood even if it was on the mean streets of 1960s Brooklyn.\u00a0 This episode conjures that up and as I get older, I fully understand that childhood joy is a magic formula that even the old can share in, even if less miraculously than in the story.<\/p>\n
This one gets a full A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This iconic episode takes place at a retirement home called Sunnyvale Rest Home.\u00a0 We\u2019re shown a cross section of the inhabitants doddering around or dozing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,4,244,240,1661],"tags":[1861,38,1355,1194,44,309,265,1691,154,1692,838],"class_list":["post-6881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-tv-reviews","category-twilight-zone","tag-kick-the-can","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rod-serling","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-twilight-zone"],"yoast_head":"\n